ABSTRACT
The history of Italian political spots has been marked by distinctive features of the country’s political, institutional, historical and legislative structure that distinguish it from developments elsewhere. Like the periodization of modern political communication – which in Italy’s case seems to have developed mostly in the second age, marked by the presence of television – the history of Italian political ads also seems to have taken a distinctive course. Political parties have used television for election-campaign publicity in Italy since 1960, when the Tribuna Elettorale program was introduced on the Rai, the monopoly public-service network. The broadcast gave Italian viewers the chance to see and listen to their political leaders, ministers and head of government for the first time. The 1979 election campaign therefore marked the political world’s “first assault on private television channels”. The expenditure amounted to around one-and-a-half billion lire, and it triggered in Italy “that transformation of election campaigns that was already at an advanced stage elsewhere”.
